India to create US$2 billion renewables equity fund

From following fiscal year, an initial fund of more than US$ 1 billion will be available to both personal as well as public firms. Reuter’s sources claimed that India is especially keen to bring in pension plan as well as insurance funds from Canada and also Europe, as reported in PV Tech Power last year. Indeed, such funds have the tendency to suit the renewable resource field where tasks could have extensive agreement life times of up to 25 years,

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, component of the finance ministry, will certainly provide US$ 600 million for the very first provision of the equity fund. The remainder will originate from India’s biggest utility NTPC, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) as well as Rural Electrification Corporation.

Modi and May unveil £10 million UK-India solar R&D drive

The Indian as well as UK head of states Narendra Modi and also Theresa May have revealed plans to establish a joint research and development centre to support solar advancements.

Speaking earlier today at the start of the India-UK Tech Summit in New Delhi, Modi said that the Indian and also UK scientific research neighborhoods were “offering remedies for clean energy and also climate change mitigation”.

An Indian federal government release verified that it would certainly be spending INR500 million (₤ 6 million) over 5 years with a matching contribution from Research Councils UK as component of the Newton Bhabha Fund, an initiative to unite UK and also Indian R&D sectors.

Sunrun bucks US residential install slump

Sunrun reported third quarter income of US$ 112.0 million, up US$ 29.4 million, or 36% from the third quarter of 2015.

US dedicated residential PV installer Sunrun has actually reported a 23% increase in PV installations in the third quarter of 2016, bucking a downturn sought after in the quarter as well as overall sluggishness in the sector this year.

Sunrun reported third quarter installations of 80MW, going beyond guidance of 72MW, a 23% increase on the previous quarter as well as 40% higher, year-on-year.

The business likewise directed 4th quarter installs at 80MW and also had booked 79MW of planned installs in the third quarter. Consequently, Sunrun restored previous full-year setup guidance of 285MW, up from a range of 270MW to 280MW.

“We are pleased to deliver Q3 results that beat targets on customer installations, net present value and cost improvements, and to raise guidance slightly for the full year,” said Lynn Jurich, Sunrun’s chief executive officer. “We have achieved these targets by consistently executing our strategy of delivering the industry’s most valuable and satisfied customer base, aligning our product offerings with customer demand and taking share in attractive markets. We are proud to partner with our growing base of customers to lead a transition to clean energy that will grow for decades to come.”

Management kept in mind in its earnings call that its focus on particular elements of the Californian market and multi-channel partner approach with local installers lagged the growth and market share gains.

“We far surpassed our initial forecast of bookings for BrightBox solar plus PV products with hundreds of orders and the terms of our supply agreement with LG for batteries would have been unimaginable just a few quarters ago,” added Jurich in the earnings call.

In Q3 total creation cost were $3.37 per watt, an improvement of $0.30 or 8% from Q2 ’16 levels. Image: Sunrun

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) has actually provided a request for submission (RfS) to procure 500MWac of solar energy ability in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Last month, Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) approved plans for the state energy to acquire one more 500MW to earn up for a predicted shortage in reaching its solar Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO), which are set at 2.5% for the year 2016-17 as well as 5% for the year 2017/18.

The tendered projects have to be between 1MWac as well as 50MWac in capacity. On the other hand, the maximum tariff has been set INR 5.10/ kWh (US$ 0.076), with PPAs to be signed with TANGEDCO.

The state’s solar strategy established in 2012 consisted of proposals to develop 3GW of PV ability by the end of 2015. Although except that target today, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) figures this week revealed that Tamil Nadu has actually taken the top place in terms of collective solar deployment from all the Indian states with a substantial installed base of 1,555 MW.

Nevertheless, both wind and also solar designers have actually experienced curtailments in the state in recent months.

India has actually gotten to 1,020 MW of solar rooftop implementations, having included 513MW over the last One Year, according to consultancy company Bridge to India.

Development over the last year was at 113% as well as a comparable trajectory is expected in the coming year, with the country including a lot more ability compared to in all various other years assembled, as reported in the latest ‘India Solar Rooftop Map’.

Notably, in comparison to head of state Narendra Modi’s objective of 40GW rooftop by 2022, Bridge to India forecasts that just 12.7 GW will certainly be installed by 2021.

While the boom thus far has been in utlity-scale, rooftop is anticipated to expand at a quicker price compared to massive in the next five years, spurred on by costs decreasing by 12% per year over the last 4 years.

Of the enhancements up until now, 22% has been with power purchase contracts (PPAs). Developers CleanMax, Amplus Solar, Cleantech Solar, Azure Power, Rays Expert as well as Hero Future Energies were mentioned as several of the leading business providing PPAs.

Bridge to India reported that development in the market is linked to improving economics, especially as business and also industrial (C&I) consumers can reduce their power expenses by in between 20-30% by embracing roof solar. C&I customers dominate the market with 63% of mounted capacity with grid parity having actually been achieved for C&I consumers in 17 from the 19 largest states in India. In states such as Maharashtra as well as Haryana, the difference in tariffs between grid power as well as roof solar can be approximately 30%.

The states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat have the highest set up capacity at the same time the central government continuously solar-enables buildings with even more tenders.

India first crossed the 8GW milestone in August, but Tamil Nadu has moved from second to first place as the state with the most capacity:

Tamil Nadu 1,555MW

Rajasthan 1,295MW

Gujarat 1,136MW

Telangana 962MW

Andhra Pradesh 947MW

Madhya Pradesh 810MW

Punjab 571MW

Vinay Rustagi, managing supervisor, Bridge to India, stated: “Rooftop solar has actually been a side-story in the Indian solar industry so far, yet that is beginning to transform currently. The sector is growing rapidly as well as starting to understand its potential thanks mainly to raising price competition of roof solar power vs grid power.

“The government has actually introduced eye-catching plans such as internet metering, subsidies for select consumers and more affordable financial debt funding for the market although there is significant extent for enhancement on every front. There is also significant roof ability being produced in the government field itself.”

In conclusion, Bridge to India claimed there is a “intense future” for India’s roof market.

The other day, Delhi Discom BSES touted their very own development in solar rooftop based upon internet metering systems.

“A committee constituted by the current government has recommended three tax slabs for GST: a standard rate of 17-18% for most items, a merit list where the rate would be 12% and a demerit list where the rate would be 40%. This is in addition to an exemption list of around 100 essential items where GST would be completely waived off.

The industry had been expecting solar cells and modules to find a place in the exemption list of around 100 essential items where GST would be waived off. However, this seems increasingly unlikely in view of recent comments made by minister Piyush Goyal where he said that the GST would help provide a level playing field to local manufacturing. Solar equipment would fall either under the standard list or merit list. In either scenario, the overall project cost is likely to increase and pare most of the price reduction gains made over the last 1-2 years.

Under the current regime, there is no tax or duty applicable on import of solar cells or modules as against an import duty of 26-29% applicable to most goods. As solar modules are often procured directly by the project developers, there is also no additional local tax. Under the GST regime, this nil rate would be replaced by a combination of basic custom duty and the applicable GST rate. It is expected that the basic custom duty will continue to be waived off for solar cells and modules but the standard GST rate will need to be paid.

The standard import duty for inverters in India is 28.44% but this is reduced to just 5.15% for solar projects. Therefore, the cost of imported solar inverters would also increase under the GST regime. However, many prominent international inverter suppliers assemble their inverters in India and tax inefficiencies weeded out by GST should benefit local manufacturing by providing them with a level playing field against imports.

Currently, VAT and/or a Central Sales Tax (CST) is applicable on sale of equipment within India. Several states including Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have completely waived off VAT, normally around 14%, for solar equipment and most other states have set it around the 5% mark. Excise duty on manufacturers is also waived off for items such as solar module mounting structures. As all these exemptions go away and VAT, CST and excise duty get replaced with GST, the project cost would undoubtedly increase. However, a part of this increase will be offset as a pass through will be allowed on the GST paid at the time of import and savings on multiple taxes and duties along the value chain.

The magnitude of actual cost increase will depend on the applicable GST rate and the procurement pattern. MNRE estimates the cost increase to be in the range of 12-16% for a GST rate of 20%. Now the question is, how do developers manage the risk of GST being implemented when they are bidding for projects and signing PPAs?

Most PPAs in India include a ‘change in law’ clause, wherein, any impact due to change in law is passed through to power off-takers. However, there is no precedence or a process in place for calculating the pass through impact of such a change for bidding based solar project. This uncertainty will be a cause of concern for the investors.

Post implementation of GST, distribution companies (‘Discoms’) willingness to buy more solar power at higher tariffs will also be affected and could pose another short-term challenge for the sector.”

Last month, Karnataka issued Letters of Approval (LOAs) for 910 MW of solar projects it allotted in its 1.2 GW solar auction held in March. The Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) has now approved 910 MW of projects ahead of its signing of power purchase agreements (PPAs).

This certainly comes as a positive news given that solar developers in some states last year complained of delays in the signing of PPAs. For instance, in Telangana, developers last year called an emergency meeting when even months after a major 2 GW solar auction, LOAs were still held up in the chief minister’s office.

In the 1.2 GW auction, bids were received for up to 20 MW of capacity a time, across 60 taluks in Karnataka. At the time of the auction, consultancy firm Bridge to India reported that the dispersed tender had affected the transparency of the entire tender process for solar developers, due to some players losing out on capacity despite bidding aggressively, since they were competing for different taluks.

Tata Power’s subsidiary, Tata Power Renewable Energy also reported receiving a Letter of Intent (LOI) from the Karnataka Government, for the 100 MW of capacity that it won in the 500 MW auction previously held in the state.

Anil Sardana, chief executive and managing director, Tata Power, said: “Tata Power is delighted at this project win as it further fortifies our vision of generating 30-40% of the company’s total generation capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2025.”

If you have any questions on solar rooftop installations for your residential or commercial establishment, shoot us a mail right away. Contact us and get access to our holistic solar installation solutions.

India’s ambitious goal of attaining 100 GW of solar power by 2022 is well known globally and has garnered both interest and scepticism in liberal doses. However, a fact that doesn’t get quite as much attention is that 40 GW out of this is based on distributed energy generation i.e. solar rooftop systems. These solar rooftop systems can be set up at residential or commercial establishments or airport terminals, with capacities ranging from kilowatts to megawatts. Till October last year, the country had over 525 MW of solar rooftop systems.

A fact that has well been established is the crucial role that electricity regulators and discoms will play in the whole plan. Discoms have gained central prominence in the solar rooftop rollout plan, be it in terms of grid connectivity or net-metering arrangements. An interesting trend that has come up is that with the onset of rooftop-mounted solar systems, retail consumers are now playing the roles of both the electricity consumer and the generator.

Worldwide, the electricity sector is undergoing fundamental changes that might impact the business models that utilities run on. This might pose a considerable threat to discoms, whose risk perception stems from the fact that if a big consumer base shifts to solar rooftop systems, it would result in significant revenue loss since discoms would have to invest into and maintain the electricity supply infrastructure even as the demand for grid electricity reduces.

In many Indian states, industrial and commercial consumers provide subsidised electricity to the agriculture and residential ones. Thus, a wide-scale adoption of solar rooftop systems could impact the financials of discoms.

If you have any queries on solar rooftop installations for your building, shoot us a mail right away. Contact us and get access to our holistic solar installation solutions.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently submitted a request with the Department of Revenue for the exemption of renewable energy from some effects of the contentious Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill. The GST, which is a levy on the sale and consumption of goods and services in the country, was planned to come into effect by April this year, with the aim to bring the various Indian states under one umbrella.

However, there were industry concerns regarding the effect of the tax on renewable energy prices owing to changes in import duties on equipment brought into the country. According to the energy minister Tarun Kapoor, the GST can potentially raise the cost of solar power and other renewables due to higher taxes. Since the GST provides for the exemption of some taxes, the energy ministry asked for the exemption of renewables.

In spite of this, there are various potential advantages to manufacturers from GST. MNRE had commissioned a study to ascertain the effects of GST on the renewables industry, whose findings it shared with the Department of Revenue, predicting a 12-16% increase in the cost of grid-connected solar power projects in the country.

Other than the GST, another plan to rationalize corporate taxes from 33% to 25% is being formulated. This move would require the removal of tax exemptions that the solar industry enjoys. According to consultancy firm Bridge to India, the benefits under Section 80IA of the Income Tax Act, which gives a 10-year income tax exemption to solar developers, could be removed, impacting all solar power projects in the country. But since the minimum alternate tax (MAT) is already in force, the net impact on solar tariffs could hover around 4-5% or even less.

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Recently, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled against India’s domestic content requirements for large solar development projects, which enjoy subsidies and guaranteed government procurement if they use locally manufactured equipment. The case was filed by the US in 2013 to have India remove any disadvantages to imported solar equipment.

India’s ambitious National Solar Mission envisages solar electricity production of 100 GW by 2022, up from the current 5 GW. Achieving this requires access to affordable equipment and the domestic renewable energy industry would find it impossible to stay afloat without economic incentives. While a scale-up of climate policy is required, the WTO ruling is largely set to pose a hindrance to the process.

In response to the ruling, India has offered to modify the “buy local” provisions. It has proposed restricting the rules to apply to solar equipment manufactured for public use, such as defence and railways instead of electricity on a whole. This falls within the purview of GATT, where governments can favour domestic products if the procurement is “not with a view to commercial resale”.

The case sheds light on the US’ double standards where 23 states have “buy local” incentives in place to make the shift to a clean energy economy. In addition, President Obama had supported India’s low-cost solar mission. What we see is a classic case of developing nations coming in the way of emerging economies’ efforts towards climate change.

The ruling could also provide a setback to other solar plans and initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance of developing countries, which relies heavily on the access to affordable solar equipment, a central tenet of which is a domestic manufacturing industry.

WTO’s move is widely being seen as an obstruction to the country’s initiatives to achieve its renewable energy goals.

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40 banks and NBFCs recently sanctioned USD 10.7 billion worth of commitments for financing renewable energy projects in the country made at the Re-Invest event held in February last year. Of this amount, USD 4.4 billion has already been dispersed by financial institutions.

Re-Invest 2015, a government-organized “meet and expo” was conducted in New Delhi, and is India’s flagship event for the promotion of renewable energy development and investment in the country. As part of the event, these financial institutions committed to providing debt funding for renewable energy projects of cumulative capacity of over 78.75 GW over the next five years. The amount sanctioned till date accounts for over 18% of the total pledged amount.

This news is a positive development amidst the growing concerns over the lack of adequate financing for Indian solar projects. The solar PV industry is still thinking over the possible long-term effects of SunEdison’s financial troubles as it tries to offload about 1 GW of renewable capacity in the country. Meanwhile, no developer that bid for solar projects at a tariff lower than INR 5 per kWh has secured financing yet.

The Re-Invest 2015 event witnessed renewable energy commitments of more than 283 GW from the stakeholders along with a commitment of 62 GW of manufacturing capacity in the country. These commitments complement the government’s target of 175 GW of renewable capacity by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar energy. As per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)’s calculations, this would require an outlay of USD 160 billion. Banks and NBFCs are expected to have a major role to play in providing low cost and long term financing for projects of this nature.

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In a first-of-its-kind solar development initiative, two Andhra Pradesh villages, Toorputallu and Pedhamyanavanilanka will now run completely on solar power, becoming the first two villages in the country to have achieved this feat. Nirmala Sitharaman, the Commerce and Industry Minister has adopted these two villages as part of the Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY).

SAGY, an ambitious project for rural development, was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as part of which each Member of Parliament has to adopt three villages, taking on the responsibility of developing their institutional and physical infrastructure by 2019.

A 2 MW solar power plant is in the pipeline, to be developed by a private entity while the power generated will be sold to Andhra Pradesh discom Andhra Pradesh Eastern Power Distribution Company Limited (APEPDCL). As part of the proposal, the required land for the construction of the plant has already been earmarked and the APEPDCL has consented to buy solar power from the developer. The construction of the plant is expected to be completed by August 2016. Additionally, the plant is also expected to generate a substantial income for the village, to the tune of 60 paise per unit.

The move certainly sets a precedent for not just the country but around the world, especially as countries across the globe are increasingly vying to make the shift to renewable sources of energy. Moreover, it gives a major boost to the country’s ambitious plan of achieving 100 MW of solar capacity by 2022.

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